I have been working for the rail road for over 8 years and during this period I had the opportunity to work on rail road cars such as Amfleet cars and Metroliners of Amtrak, the M.U. cars A2 and A3 of the Department of Transportation of New Jersey and the MI cars of Long Island Rail Road. Among all the above types of cars the M.U. Cars of N.J.D.O.T. have the best fault indication system. Therefore, a brief discussion on these cars may be appropriate. Each car is equipped with a fault indication panel inside at the middle of the car. During a trip if a fault occurs in the propulsion system of a car, the fault indication panel latches up in that condition. At the same time this faulty car turns on the train fault light in the cab from which the engineer comes to know that at least one car on his train has propulsion problem. This train fault light however does not give the answers to the questions such as what kind of propulsion problem and how many cars or which cars are having this problem. After a fault indication panel latches up in a car, the said panel does not register any further changes in the fault condition of the said car. When a fault occurs in the propulsion system due to motor over load or motor ground conditions, the train fault light lights up immediately. But in case of partial or total loss of propulsive power, the train fault light lights up about 60 seconds after the engineer dials for full power. That means if a train is operated at half or three quarter of its full power for indefinite period the train fault light would not light up even if some cars lose partial or total propulsive power.
In the cab there are indication lights which indicate the conditions of doors, brake release, brake applied and the like, but in case of failure in these functions, there is no way of knowing from the cab as to which car or cars are at fault. There is no indication light provided in the cab for heating and air-conditioning of the cars.
The Amfleet cars of Amtrak are equipped with hot box detectors. When a wheel bearing gets over heated, the detecting system turns on warning light in the faulty car as well as in the locomotive. From this warning light in the locomotive the engineer comes to know that at least one car on his train has hot journal condition but he has no way of knowing from the locomotive as to which car or cars have hot journals.
In accordance with the present invention, the above and other problems of the prior art are overcome and functions not available in the prior art are provided.
The main purpose of this invention is to provide the engineer with detailed informations on the fault conditions of his train on car to car basis so that he may report these faults to proper authotity over radio long before the train reaches the yard. Knowing the volume of work involved, the repairing team may be organised accordingly.
An equally important purpose is to make the trouble shooting and testing of trains faster and easier.
A third purpose is to cut down the cost of repairs and maintenance.
A final purpose is to make the running of trains more safe and efficient.